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Topic: how we lost interest in him (Read 11711 times)

How can you really say he's going downhill? Reservoir Dogs was good, Pulp Fiction was great, Jackie Brown was just as great, and Kill Bill is... different... and great in its own special way. Doesn't "going downhill" require, like, a hill? This is more of a plateau.

How can you really say he's going downhill? Reservoir Dogs was good, Pulp Fiction was great, Jackie Brown was just as great, and Kill Bill is... different... and great in its own special way. Doesn't "going downhill" require, like, a hill? This is more of a plateau.

if one agreed with your basic assessment of each film, I guess one could say its more of a plateau

How can you really say he's going downhill? Reservoir Dogs was good, Pulp Fiction was great, Jackie Brown was just as great, and Kill Bill is... different... and great in its own special way. Doesn't "going downhill" require, like, a hill? This is more of a plateau.

Ever notice how nobody mentions "From Dusk Till Dawn" in his body of work? It's true that he only wrote the screenplay, but I can't imagine it being that much better even if he had directed it. That movie is a mess.

I also think that because of Pulp Fiction, he's held to a far higher standard with each subsequent film he releases. We've seen how talented he is. I don't question his brilliance for a moment. The trouble is, once everyone has seen him at the top of his game, anything less is a disappointment.

Ever notice how nobody mentions "From Dusk Till Dawn" in his body of work? It's true that he only wrote the screenplay, but I can't imagine it being that much better even if he had directed it. That movie is a mess.

a mess of awesomeness. what are you talking about? plus, nobody mentions true romance in this either, we're only talking about the films in which he has been solely responsible for.

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Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

I agree with what most of you guys said about losing interest in QT, which makes me feel especially weird as it was Reservoir Dogs that got me interested in film.

However, if he does become a victim of pop culture / parody of himself, at least we can look forward to one thing: he'll still get to make movies, and while they might not be the brilliance we were hoping for, maybe he'll just become a solid director of stupid mindless genre movies, and to be honest, we need some talented directors of those kinds of movies working in Hollywood. If they're gonna pump so many of them out every year, I'd rather one of them was by a guy like QT.

at the end of the day, I'm hoping when I see Kill Bill put together as one movie I'll somehow be exposed to whatever magic was missing (particularly from the second part), and do a full turnaround and love it...

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Those who say that the totalitarian state of the Soviet Union was not "real" Marxism also cannot admit that one simple feature of Marxism makes totalitarianism necessary: the rejection of civil society. Since civil society is the sphere of private activity, its abolition and replacement by political society means that nothing private remains. That is already the essence of totalitarianism; and the moralistic practice of the trendy Left, which regards everything as political and sometimes reveals its hostility to free speech, does nothing to contradict this implication.

When those who hated capital and consumption (and Jews) in the 20th century murdered some hundred million people, and the poster children for the struggle against international capitalism and America are now fanatical Islamic terrorists, this puts recent enthusiasts in an awkward position. Most of them are too dense and shameless to appreciate it, and far too many are taken in by the moralistic and paternalistic rhetoric of the Left.

However, if he does become a victim of pop culture / parody of himself, at least we can look forward to one thing: he'll still get to make movies, and while they might not be the brilliance we were hoping for, maybe he'll just become a solid director of stupid mindless genre movies, and to be honest, we need some talented directors of those kinds of movies working in Hollywood. If they're gonna pump so many of them out every year, I'd rather one of them was by a guy like QT.

Nothing is really original anyway right? Everything is a copy of a copy of something else. So, in essence even the most original filmaking was inspired from or is a mirror of previous work in the history of cinema. The difference is, some work is blatently familiar and other work is more subtle and original. Tarantino basically put a bunch of Shaw brother movies and Sergio Leone in a blender and hit frappe for Kill Bill. I'm totally ok with that, but I hope he doesn't turn into a really good cover band over the next few years.

ROME -- The Italian cinema industry is up in arms after recent comments from director Quentin Tarantino, who called the current state of the film industry "depressing."

Italian newspapers on Monday and over the weekend were full of reaction to the director's comments, which came less than a month after it was revealed that he would co-present a series of Spaghetti Westerns in a special sidebar at this year's Venice Film Festival.

Tarantino is known to be a fan of old Italian films, but according to his recent comments published in Sorrisi & Canzioni -- the country's leading television magazine -- his love for the country's film productions does not extend to more contemporary cuts.

"New Italian cinema is just depressing," Tarantino said. "Recent films I've seen are all the same. They talk about boys growing up, or girls growing up, or couples having a crisis, or vacations of the mentally impaired."

Those defending modern Italian cinema included some of the best-known names in the game.

"How dare he talk about Italian cinema when he doesn't know anything about American cinema?" asked Naples-born Sophia Loren, according to media reports.

"Tarantino is a brute," said Marco Bellocchio, a five-time Palme d'Or nominee in Cannes and a member of this year's Cannes jury.

Even editorial writers got in on the counterattack, with the left-wing daily L'Unita saying Tarantino was himself "mentally impaired."

The center-left daily La Repubblica, Italy's second-largest newspaper, said that if Italian film isn't what it used to be, neither was Tarantino.

"Tarantino is no longer the Tarantino that made 'Pulp Fiction,' " the newspaper opined.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Tarantino said he was “appalled” at the current state of Italian cinema at the Cannes Film Festival last month.

“Quentin is a good director, a passionate cinema enthusiast and great expert on all the world’s trash,” said Almodovar.

“But you shouldn’t take his comments too seriously because he suffers from a form of verbal incontinence and he is nostalgic for the Italian cinema of (Umberto) Lenzi, (Mario) Bava and (Lucio) Fulci.

“I don’t think he was comparing the best auteur cinema of yesterday and today. I doubt he had the cinema of Luchino Visconti, Pietro Germi and Pier Paolo Pasolini in mind.

“And I don’t think he knows Italy’s auteur filmmakers of today”.

Almodovar, who has won Academy Awards for Talk to Her (best screenplay, 2003) and All About My Mother (best foreign film, 2000), was speaking at a ceremony at which Culture Minister Francesco Rutelli made him a ‘Commendatore’, one of Italy’s top honours.

The director will also be awarded the best European film prize Thursday at the 2007 David di Donatello awards - Italy’s Oscars - for Volver.

“There are only two countries where I don’t have to explain what putting passion into your cinema means - Spain and Italy,” he added.

“These are cultures where emotion, instinct and the art of getting by and suffering to express talent are part of the national DNA”.

Almodovar paid tribute to the influence Italian movies had had on his career too.

“When I went to the cinema as a child in the 1950s I was most attracted to the films that portrayed real life honestly, without filters of form and style,” he said.

“This is the recipe of the best Italian cinema. I tried to take inspiration from that lesson, putting heart and brains to the fore, like (Federico) Fellini, for example”.

Tarantino also acknowledged Italian cinema as one of his main sources of inspiration - particularly in B-movie directors like Bava - before blasting its current state at Cannes.

“I really loved the Italian movies of the 1960s and 1970s. What happened? It’s a real tragedy,” the American director said.

“The (Italian) films I’ve seen over the last few years all seem the same. All they talk about is boys growing up, girls growing up, couples in crisis and holidays for the mentally disabled”.

Tarantino’s outburst also earned him a rebuke from Italian film diva Sophia Loren.

“How dare he talk about Italian cinema when he doesn’t even know anything about American cinema,” the 73-year-old said.

Tarantino will be a guest at this year’s Venice Film Festival in September, where he will present his favourite spaghetti westerns.

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“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” - Andy Warhol

Hahahah. It's ... impossible for me to be offended by Quentin Tarantino at this point. I've come full circle. I like him again. It's fine with me. I wish I could rewatch Kill Bill Vol. 1 right now. And I'm very excited for Inglourious Basterds or whatever it's called.